Holly Pulling Power Pole
After the electric company got done moving our power the other week from the overhead poles to the underground installation they uprooted the power pole and left it along the side of the road for us to have. When the poles are in the ground I didn’t really realize how long they are. Pulling it up the driveway, the winding road we have, proved an interesting trick. Holly dragged it very slowly while Will, Ben and I used pinch bars to roll the butt end around the curves.
Running down the length of the power pole is a heavy copper wire, the grounding wire, which attaches to the copper pad you can see there on the base of the pole. Somewhere across the road is a grounding rod too. I’m going to hunt for it. They’re expensive.
So now I have a power pole. One of my life’s ambition’s fulfilled. What I’ll do is anyone’s guess. Ideas?
Outdoors: 74째F/42째F Mostly Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 72째F/69째F
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
i cut them with a chain saw and use them as corner posts. i use the copper to wire up hog panels in the garden then recycle the bits after they are used until they break.
They make great corner post!
A lot of people around here use them as a very tall clothesline pole. Attach a pulley to the top and run line from there to a second pulley on the house and back again. Keeps the wash WAY off the ground and you can just stand by the door to hang and bring in laundry.
Our old farm came with several downed power poles scattered around. I was always going to use them in various construction projects, but all they ever really wound up used for was something to sit on while I enjoyed the barnyard. If I had gotten around to building a real barn, I thought I'd use them as the corners of the building (vertically).
It might make a good arm for a trebuchet, if you could find about 4 or 5 more poles, you could build the rest of a trebuchet.
Fling some pumpkins up the hill, then rotate the pigs through the paddock to clean up the smashed projectiles.
Cut at various lengths ie 2 feet, 3 feet, etc. Stand on end and scoop out a sizable dent in the top of each pole. Fill with dirt and plant flowers. Saw this in Alaska done with toppled trees and they were beautiful.
Do you know anyone with a lathe? I bet you could make some awesome pieces with it. I've also seen some pretty cool podiums made from long wood posts. Or you could find a gorge that needed a crossing point. . .
Support a swing bridge or a jib crane, the main rafter on the greenhouse, I like the tall clothsline idea.
we needed a phone pole or two. We were going to build a bridge with it/them. I think one pole would have done it, cut in half . . . to span the chism. okay, can't really call it a chism in Missouri . . . but we thought that pole would have been the beginning of a bridge!
How about putting up a windmill to generate some of your power?
oh a creative use, maybe each of your kids could carve a few totems. when you are done you could still use it as a clothes line or a wind generator support.
Do you have a future BIG project that might need a sturdy ridge pole?
Another idea: How about a Rocket Wagon Monorail? Or some other type of guiding/launching device for a big splash into the little pond?
How about a pole to support some hops plants? It’s never too late to start brewing your own beer too!
*grin* We actually had some hops growing here for a while. I like the plant although I’ve never tried collecting the flowers, the hops, for brewing beer as I’m not a beer drinker. Check out this photo of some very pretty hops growing on the wall at the Alchemist Pub which is now the Prohibition Pig in Waterbury, Vermont.
Chinese characters again, and what did you use the pole for? Support beams for one of the pig shelters?